The Wake Up Call
by Mariana D'Arcaii
Summary: Why are the turtles knocking on April's door so early in the morning? And where's Casey?


I blame the heat, and being stuck outside at work all last summer with nothing to do, for this venture into Turtles fandom. That, and the fact that my roommates at the time were obsessed with it.

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.

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April O'Neil looked up from the book she was reading. It was 2:30 AM, and she had been reading in an attempt to get herself to sleep. She had a nagging, persistent feeling that something was wrong, which she had been unable to shake all night, and had been keeping her awake. Unable, finally, to concentrate on her book, she turned on a favorite movie, and gradually drifted off to sleep.

A few hours later, April was awoken by a knock on her door. Groggily, she glanced at the clock. 6AM. Only the turtles would come over at this hour... and only when something was drastically wrong. In an instant, April was awake, throwing on a robe, and heading towards the door.

Her guess was right. The Turtles, and Master Splinter, were at her door, and they had all definitely seen better days.

"Thanks, April," said Donatello, the brainy one of the bunch. "We were searching for supplies, and ran across a bunch of foot clan ninjas, most likely looking for the hideout.

We just managed to escape with our shells, and thought it might be best to lay low here for a while. But, April…. It's Casey. He was with us, and got beaten up pretty badly. We dropped him off at the hospital on our way here, but he didn't look too good. He stopped breathing a few times. We… we don't know if he's going to make it."

April stood rooted to the spot, dumb struck. There were times when Casey Jones drove her absolutely insane. Despite that, she'd had the feeling recently that they were becoming closer, and he was becoming more than just a friend. Hearing that he might not survive had made her painfully aware of just how much he was starting to mean to her.

"Where is he?" April asked when she got over the shock. "I… I should go check on his condition, and someone should stay with him. Which, you guys obviously can't do very easily. Why don't you guys stay her and recoup, while I go check on him?"

Donatello and Leonardo, the only two who could have any clue how much Casey meant to April gave each other knowing looks.

"Ok then," answered Leo, the leader of the group. "He's at county general."

Later, April didn't remember much of the cab ride to the hospital, aside from the nagging, incessant fear that she would be too late. She tried to reassure herself that the Turtles and Splinter weren't exactly medics; they could have been wrong about the severity of the wounds Casey had suffered, but it didn't help much.

She rushed into the emergency room when they arrived at the hospital, barely stopping to pay the cabbie. "Casey Jones," she gasped at the triage nurse.

"One moment please," the nurse answered, and began typing the name into the computer. "I'm sorry, we don't have anyone here by that name."

"But, he has to be here! The tu… ah, some mutual friends of ours said this was where he was taken!"

"Well, we do have a John Doe who was brought in early this morning. But… I'm afraid he's waiting to be taken to the morgue. There wasn't anything we could do for him; it was too late by the time he was brought in. Would you like to see him?"

April almost collapsed on the spot. Casey… dead? It couldn't be true! Mutely, she managed to nod, and follow the nurse to where to body was being kept temporarily. As soon as the nurse left her alone with the body, she burst into tears. No doubt about it… that was Casey. Same build, same sandy blond hair. Same… wait a minute, Casey had dark hair! April managed to stop sobbing long enough to actually get a good look at the body, and much to her relief saw that it was not Casey! She ran back to the nurse, finally managing to make the nurse understand that the dead man was not who she was looking for.

"Could you check again? I'm sure he's here, somewhere."

"Well… there is the man in room 11. We thought that some identification found near where he was left were his, but we could be wrong. No one has come to ask about him yet."

This time, it was really Casey, and after assuring the nurse that this was indeed who she had been looking for, April was left alone, with plenty of time to get a good look at his injuries. He was hooked up to an IV, a ventilator, and numerous other tubes which April could not identify, his right wrist and left leg were in casts, and his face, or what could be see of it, was badly bruised, but at least he was alive. April was standing, gazing at his prostrate form and trying not to cry again, when there was a knock at the window. Looking out, April recognized Donatello, and let him into the room.

"Hey. Leo and I didn't think that you should be alone. How is he?"

"I haven't talked to a doctor yet, so I'm not sure how Casey is doing. I'll be sure to let you guys know when I find anything out though."

"We'll be at your place, so call us when you hear anything. And oh, yeah, we'll

make sure Mikey doesn't break anything." Donny was rewarded with a weak smile for his attempt at humor. "Now," he asked, looking serious, "how are you?"

April wanted to pretend everything was ok. She wanted to, but she couldn't. Donatello infolded her in a hug as a single tear rolled down her cheek. "It's going to be ok," he tried to reassure her. "Casey is a tough guy, he'll pull through."

Suddenly, Donny had vanished, and a man in a white lab coat who April assumed

was the doctor entered the room.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Carter," the new arrival introduced himself. "Would you like to know how he's doing?"

"Yes, please."

"Well, he has a concussion, a fractured wrist, a broken leg, some cracked ribs, and a lot of bruising. The main things we are concerned with right now are weather he has any internal bleeding we haven't caught, and the fact that he hasn't woken up yet. We'll know more when some lab results come back. Now, Mrs. Jones, if you don't have any questions, I have a few other patients who need my attention."

"That's fine, thank you."

"Mrs. Jones?" Donny questioned, reappearing from nowhere.

"Figured he would kick me out if he knew I wasn't family," April shrugged.

Being a teenage male and unable to resist a little teasing, Donatello was about to say more, but the look on April's face silenced him.

For the next few days, April was at the hospital, and by Casey's side, constantly. She was with him for as long as she could be when he went for a CAT scan, and waited impatiently for the results when it was over. She went home only when she had to, for a change of clothes, a shower, a couple of hours of sleep, and to make sure the boys hadn't completely trashed her place.

Exactly a week after getting his butt kicked by the foot clan ninjas Casey Jones finally woke up. April was at the vending machines, getting a drink and a snack, when the doctor rushed up to her.

"Mrs. Jones, thank goodness I found you. Come quickly, your husband is waking up. "

When April got to Casey's room, a nurse was leaning down by his bedside, trying to get him to remain conscience. Noticing April walk into the room, the nurse said "look who's here, Mr. Jones. It's your wife.

Casey managed to fix a bleary gaze on April, and mutter, "Who, her? She's not my

wife. Been meanin' to ask her one day though," before he passed out.

April stared at Casey, a little stunned, and not quite believing what she had just heard. The fact that Casey had just blown her cover as his "wife" didn't even cross her mind. That is, not until she saw Dr. Carter gazing at her, and motioning for her to follow him out of the room.

"Are you married to the man in that room or aren't you?" Dr. Carter asked bluntly. Seeing how upset April was at being caught, he reassured her, "Don't worry; now that he's out of the ER, there are no "family only" rules for visitors. I wouldn't kick you out anyway; not after all the time you've spent here. If you are married, however, it appears that the concussion caused a slight bit of amnesia, which we would have to deal with."

April admitted that she wasn't married to Casey, and thanked the doctor for being so understanding. She then went to call the turtles with the good news that Casey had finally woken up, at least temporally.

After hearing that Casey was at least partially conscience, all of the turtles wanted to stay at the hospital with April. Master Splinter, however, ordered that only one of his sons be allowed to remain at the hospital at a time, as there were not many places in a small hospital room for full grown turtles to hide- even turtles with ninjitsu training.

Mikey got to go first. After he saw that Casey was going to recover from his injuries, Mikey was amused by the random, morphine induced comments that Casey often made. His favorite comment by far, however, was when Casey woke up long enough to look at April, say "nice ass!" and then promptly fell back asleep. April had been standing with her back to Casey's bed, talking with a nurse, and Casey had happened to turn his head so he had a clear view of April's backside. He woke up, commented on the view, and fell back asleep. The nurse was kind enough to ignore the comment, and April hopped that Mikey, who was hiding in the shower, hadn't heard it. Her fears were confirmed, however, when Mikey came out of hiding, doubled over with laughter. He found that Casey's comment provided hours of amusement, mostly at April's expense. It took a swift whack from Donny's bo to get him to finally stop.

After another week in the hospital, Casey was finally released. Not willing to trust him

in his injured state on his own, April took him back to her apartment.

The turtles and Splinter were gathering their things when April and Casey arrived. "Hey guys," Leo greeted them. "We were just moving back to the hideout, to give you guys a little extra room."

"See you guys later then," Casey called, hobbling to the couch. "Hey, sweet checks, how about ordering a pizza or something? I'm starving!"

At the mention of their favorite food, the turtles all promptly dropped what they were carrying, and joined Casey around the TV. "On second thought, we can wait a little bit longer. Right, sensei?"

April sighed, "Guess I'm paying for pizza again."

Later, after the pizza had been consumed and the turtles and their sensei had finally left, April's curiosity got the better of her, and she asked, "Hey, Casey? Do you remember what you said, when you first woke up? Did you mean it?"

Casey considered for a moment before responding, "Sure babe, I remember, and I did mean it. You do have a very nice ass!"

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AN: Constructive criticism is welcomed. Flames, especially based on my choice of pairing, are not, and will be given to Mikey to make pizza toppings.


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